The Pizzagate theory was initially promoted and popularized on the notorious Poe-nest4chan and on Reddit. It spread quickly over various fake news websites, as well as via social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, and culminated in an armed man, arguably acting on the suggestion of one Alex Jones,[4] entering the lion's den pizza parlor in question, rifle in hand, to "self-investigate" the claims in December 2016.

The foundations of Pizzagate were laid by 4chan trolls scouring Clinton-related emails released by Wikileaks looking for dirt.[note 2] They found a series of emails which mentioned the pizza parlor Comet Ping Pong in Washington, D.C.,[note 3] having seen occasional use as a venue for DNC fundraising events.[5] Because life is random, the phrase "cheese pizza" happened to be an inside joke referring to child pornography on 4chan.[note 4][6][7] Thus, users started to fabricate a conspiracy theory around the mention of this generic food item in the Podesta emails, soon speculating up a storm. Based on this diligent research, they quickly concluded that Podesta, Clinton and others were all part of a clandestine pedophile ring operating out of the innocent-looking pizza parlor.[8] The conspira-trollery eventually flooded Reddit, where, on /r/The_Donald/, a redditor by the name of "DumbScribblyUnctious" collected all the dubious conspiracy theories into one giant screed titled "Comet Ping Pong — Pizzagate Summary".[9]

As Pizzagate blew up on the internet, the hashtag #pizzagate began trending on Twitter.[11] Comet Ping Pong suddenly gained a massive amount of followers on Instagram — along with numerous death threats.[note 5] The conspiracy theory was actively spread on Twitter by a number of Trump supporters, a mob apparently still consumed by Trump's (later completely abandoned) "crooked Hillary" narrative, desperate for any scraps of controversy that could realize their wet dream — to "lock her up".[8][note 6]

Turkish media outlets loyal to sultan president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan responsibly decided to publish articles promoting the Pizzagate conspiracy theory.[12] Aside from the goal of generally stirring anti-American sentiment in Turkey, the stories were likely meant to deflect from a sexual abuse scandal implicating a charitable foundation with ties to Erdoğan's ruling party, and to distract from crackdowns on dissent after the attempted coup of July 2016.

As Pizzagate propagated across social media through various fake news outlets, with strategic command in charge of Hillary-bashing operations taking the hysteria to a new level, many people, lacking the apparent ability to tell fact from fiction, took the whole production for a real news story. One such misguided individual, a 28-year-old man from Salisbury, North Carolina, named Edgar Maddison Welch, decided to respond to Alex Jones' impassioned pleas for General Kenobisomeone to take matters into their own hands and "personally investigate".[4]

Like a modern-day fake news-fueled Travis Bickle, Welch ominously stepped inside Comet Ping Pong on December 4, 2016 at around 3 p.m., when the parlor was packed with customers.[13] And Welch hadn't come alone, either (making his entrance brandishing a loaded rifle), supposedly on a mission to "self-investigate" the Pizzagate conspiracy.[note 7] Understandably, employees and diners alike made like a tree and left the scene. In a sense, Welch had successfully managed to drain that particular NWO swamp. According to his own post-arrest words, Welch "fired off some rounds". Thankfully (though oddly, perhaps battling some kind of Pizzergeist?), Welch only fired his gun once he was alone inside the pizza parlor.[13] Soon thereafter, he was promptly arrested after surrendering to police.[14][15][16][17] Welch later stated that:[18]

“”I just wanted to do some good and went about it the wrong way. I regret how I handled the situation.

While Welch first heard of the Pizzagate conspiracy through word of mouth, he confirmed it was the barrage of nonsense on the Internet that led him to believe his actions were warranted.[18][note 8]

I want our viewers and listeners to know that we regret any negative impact our commentaries may have had on Mr. Alefantis, Comet Ping Pong, or its employees. We apologize to the extent our commentaries could be construed as negative statements about Mr. Alefantis or Comet Ping Pong, and we hope that anyone else involved in commenting on Pizzagate will do the same thing.

At some point, the InfoWars apology was deleted from the website. Taking and bearing responsibility is too much effort.

In May 2019, an FBI memo from the Phoenix Field Office designated several political conspiracy theories (QAnon, Pizzagate, HAARP, New World Order, Sandy Hook massacre) as domestic threats with the potential to incite violence.[21][22] As evidence, the FBI cited arrests for criminal activities associated with the conspiracy theories.[22]

The Right Stuff (neo-Nazi) opening paragraph: "Make yourself aware of the information, use it to prepare memes and to make the lives of Leftists miserable. Do not run headlong into Illuminati conspiracy, that has been a failing tactic in the past, so we must exercise extreme caution around this topic."[26]

Several images circulating on twitter claim to reveal the "truth" about Pizzagate. These collages are indistinguishable from displays of batshit insanity, commonly known as "crazy walls" or "serial killer walls".[34]Haig's Law may be useful here.

The first infographic we look at eases us into the crazy world of a nutjob. It delves into several emails from the Clinton email leak:[35][36]

Original (mis)infographic

Analysis

Hi John,

The realtor found a handkerchief (I think it has a map that seems pizza-related. Is it yorus[sic]? They can send it if you want. I know you're busy, so feel free not to respond if it's not yours or you don't want it.

Susaner

The author finds this emails strange. Perhaps it's a handkerchief with a picture of a map? Certainly not evidence of a crime.

Mary and John

I think you should give notice when changing strategies which have been long in place. I immediately realized something was different by the shape of the box and I contemplated who would be sending me something in the square shaped box. Lo and behold, instead of pasta and wonderful sauces, it was a lovely, tempting assortment of cheeses, Yummy. I am awaiting the return of my children and grandchildren from their holiday travels so that we can demolish them. Thank you so much. I hope you and your gang are well.

I miss you both

Best wishes fro a merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Herb

Ps.[sic] Do you think I’ll do better playing dominos[sic] on cheese than on pasta?

Easily one of the weirdest emails. Conspiracy theorists may think this email is code for something, and "demolish them" can refer to children and grandchildren rather than actual food. You'll see, however, the Podesta's Comet Pizza is a weird establishment. Playing a game of dominoes on a slice of cheese is tame compared to the hipster atmosphere the pizza place has to offer. More plausibly, the sentence could be interpreted to mean 'on [a stomach full of] cheese or pasta', rather than the nonsensical 'on [top of]'.

Now if you have made it here, there are many[,] many more mails talking about pizza, walnuts, hotdogs, pizza partys,[sic] etc; every link is in the pastebin[.] check for yourself: http://pastebin.com/8qk1WCsr

A pizza place has mails talking about pizza.

We don't mean to distort the narrative to mean something else but before we continue[,]

Notice how the images don't actually prove anything and are completely devoid of any meaning? Get used to this because presenting images with no meaning is something this author is very, very good at. One image is a bunch of tags that are "friends" of the establishment, which includes Heavy Breathing, the name of a band. This is highlighted in green for emphasis because and only because "Heavy Breathing" is a weird, creepy name, and can be associated with sex acts, which seems like a perfect fit for torturous pattern seekers. It's strange how pizza and cheese are highly contrived code words that confirm a conspiracy, but "Heavy Breathing" is much more explicit, and that also confirms the conspiracy. Finally, for some reason "brightestyoungthings" isn't highlighted, but oh well, might as well highlight everything. "Pandahead" is probably a code word for something out there anyway.

The next image is green and "our shows are always all ages". We believe it's supposed to be taken it as an invitation for children but we shouldn't have to point out that millions of places happily proclaim "fun for all ages!". This shouldn't be a special case, but it doesn't matter if you don't appreciate the mundane.

[A screen capture of Comet Ping Pong's FaceBook page]

[Comet Ping Pong's FaceBook profile picture]

A picture of man who truly loves his pizza. It's an exaggerated cartoon that exaggerates like every other cartoon.

This infographic takes images off of Comet Ping Pong's FaceBook — which are band posters — and points things out with little analysis.

Original (mis)infographic

Analysis

◀ Look at the handkerchief code again

The text points to a logo for the band The Coathangers. The author attempts to imply that the drops on the logo are linked to the handkerchief code, but note that most colors (including white, now, since it's been crudely forged into a screenshot of the Wikipedia article) are components of the handkerchief code, so most symbols interpreted thought this light are suspect.

Well apart from the weird imagery and occultism references[,] some of you may have pickup,[sic] these have nothing illegal, but we kept digging and the rabit[sic] hole was too deep...

According to an article from Slate, Cauterucci and Fischer suggest that the restaurant's unorthodox and downright weird imagery is the reason behind the conspiracy:[39]

So why Comet? It’s possible that alt-righters susceptible to conspiracy theories might have latched onto any D.C. pizza place (they think the word pizza is a pedophilic code word). And it’s true that Comet’s owner, James Alefantis, has some connections to Democratic Party bigwigs. But there’s something special about Comet Ping Pong, and it’s that distinctive character, sadly, that may have allowed the campaign against it to fester. Comet is, after all, D.C.'s weirdo pizza place.

For the better part of a decade, Comet has been both a neighborhood hang for young families as well as a reliable home for eccentrics, queers, outsiders, and their art. Alefantis, who owns another restaurant on the same street and is a formidable player in the D.C. art world, fills his restaurant with a rotating collection of installations from local visual artists. The pingpong tables in the back room regularly get cleared out for concerts featuring up-and-coming local acts alongside touring bands that could easily book the bigger venues in town. While families eat pizza in the front, D.C. punks cheer on their friends and idols in the back. Even when the headliner is a band called Sex Stains, the vibe is generally pretty wholesome.

>Sex Stains>ALL AGES

The author uses red ink and 4chan ">"s to show professional journalism is afoot.

Sex Stains is a punk rock band that the author apparently has a problem with. While it is weird that a band with such a name and logo allows all ages to attend, this is not enough evidence for any crime; it's evidence that the band and Comet Ping Pong is weird. Apparently, the band got accused of being involved in a pedophile ring and wrote this letter to the press:[40]

Sex Stains.
A band name we decided on after 100 suggestions by random people on Facebook because every name we could think up was already taken.
We are just a punk rock band from L.A.
We are NOT pedophiles. Just the thought of that is sickening!

What the hell happened here?
A few months ago, we passed through DC on a week long mini tour. We booked a show at Comet. We were told it's an ok place for bands to play, so we did. That's about the extent of our involvement with or knowledge of this venue.
[…]
There was absolutely NO PLOT to purposefully use offensive symbols or to mess with peoples heads. There was/is ZERO interest in anything having to do with children. No one in the band had any knowledge of the triangle/spirals horrid symbolism. We're shocked & disgusted by the theory that we are somehow linked to Pedophelia[sic] rings or Satanic cults, and also by the hateful comments & accusations we've been receiving. WE ARE NOT pedophiles and do NOT support or promote it. Period. Again, we are just a punk rock band.

could it be?

The graphic points out hearts in two band posters, Cold Beat and Cinema Hearts, because a heart symbol was used by pedophiles at one point. Note that the hearts in either logo are just normal heart symbols lacking the smaller ones inside, the distinctive characteristic of the pedophile logo. The Legend of Zelda video game series has a lot of heart symbols. With this logic, the Zelda series promotes pedophilia.

Heavy Breathing(This band is fucking weird)

Thanks for your opinion. And we'll like to let you know that quirky names and surreal imagery (such as the decapitated woman in the band poster) are extremely common for bands.

Proponents claim that the owner James Alefantis changed his name to signal a hidden message, "J’aime L'enfants" or "I love children" in French. Such a message would be lost to illicit clients who don't know French. Careful facts don't get in the way of a tasty conspiracy: it also is grammatically incorrect in French (correct would be "j'aime les enfants" or "j'aime des enfants") (though it can still be made to fit).[41]

Our top investigator shows us screenshots from Joshua Ryan Vogelsong's instagram profile. On there, there's Photoshopped gay porn to be about pizza, a nude man on pizza, a nude man with pizza on his crotch, and a male penis ejaculating pizza. While the infographic author thinks this is pedophilia symbolism, this is not the case, as we are reasonably certain that pedophilia needs to involve, you know...children. According to Vogelsong's profile description:

A symbol found on Terasol Bistro's website with the "Girl Lover" symbol.

Aside from the first logo comparison, the other two logos lack any fair comparison. The restaurant Besta Pizza's old logo just happens to look similar to the official "Boy Love" symbol. Because of these remote similarities, cranks conclude that the two pizza places and Clinton are part of a pedophile ring; quite a jump when you consider the widely known pedophile symbols would be the last symbol someone would choose to use for a secret pedophile ring.

How much longer will society ignore these inconvenient truths? When a pattern emerges, will you ignore it? Real children get abused every day, is your fear of being labeled a conspiracy theorist going to stop you from achieving justice?#PedoFiles #SprititCooking #Anonymous

It's either a coincidence or a joke by the logo designer who is probably laughing their ass off now. Mere coincidences don't hold up in a court of law.

Cranks speculated that words and phrases used in leaked Clinton-related emails were pedophile codewords. (Of course, these words could also be used normally in normal conversations, but apparently cranks feel the pedophile meanings are somehow more "believable".)[46]

Proponents claim that the owner James Alefantis changed his name to signal a hidden message reading "J’aime L'enfants" or "I love children" in French. Such a message would be lost to illicit clients who don't know French. Careful facts don't get in the way of a tasty conspiracy: it also is grammatically incorrect in French (correct would be "j'aime les enfants" or "j'aime des enfants") (though it can still be made to fit).

An infographic claims that codewords used by pedophiles are used in Clinton-related emails. But aside from "chicken", terms like "sauce", "pasta", "pizza", "handkerchief",[48] and "pillows" are not documented terms used by pedophiles; they were pulled out of thin air.

Adherents believe that the supposed pedophile ring also worships Satan, citing as evidence a jokey email signature used by retired Foreign Service officer Lewis Amselem: "With fingers crossed, the old rabbit's foot out of the box in the attic, I will be sacrificing a chicken in the backyard to Moloch …"[49][50][note 10] Never mind that Moloch isn't Satan.

The alleged cornerstone of Pizzagate is an attachment found in a forwarded email from Bill Clinton advisor Doug Band in 2009 called "pizza.jpg". The attachment contains a photo of two adults enjoying pizza with a kid, which is supposedly evidence of child molestation; however, the email and its attachment were completely misinterpreted.[51] What "Pizza.jpg" actually shows is American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling along with a young girl, possibly Lee's daughter Hana. The three are eating pizza after Clinton secured their release from captivity in North Korea in August 2009. "As John said, it doesn't get any better than this," Band comments to Clinton aide Huma Abedin, Podesta, and others. "Nice", Podesta responds.[52]

No child abuse. No pedophile ring. Yet cranks continued to cook up nutty conspiracies based on the photo.[53][54]

Pizzagate was confirmed in Senate intelligence committee hearings by Clint Watts to be part of a Russian "Active Measures" online operation pushing fake news, ludicrous conspiracies, and a general pro-Russian agenda.[57][58] These findings lent support to what Glen Caplin, spokesman for the Clinton campaign, had argued previously:[59]

By dribbling these out every day, WikiLeaks is proving they are nothing but a propaganda arm of the Kremlin with a political agenda doing Putin's dirty work to help elect Donald Trump.

Despite the mass hysteria, the community created thoughtful art to support the Comet Ping Pong workers through the tough times.

Thanks to Pizzagate, something called "cybersteria" (i.e. public hysteria caused by internet trolls) is now a thing.[60] That means BS (like Pizzagate) brainstormed by assholes on 4chan or 8chan, picked up by the Alex Jones Infowars crazy train, amplified and spread by fake news sites, and then kept alive by Twitter trolls is something we're all going to have to live with.

Facebook is now taking the problem of fake news (and its own role in perpetuating it) much more seriously, looking into ways to identify it and stop treating it like any other trending topic in the future.[8] Thanks, Facebook — too little, too late!

A large fault with the story surrounding the Pizzagate situation is the nature of the allegations. In short, all of the "evidence" is circumstantial, and it's not even good circumstantial evidence, either. Even if Comet Pizza does have a pedophile ring, self-investigators are doing an extremely poor job pushing their case. To date, no evidence or victims have come forward to confirm the existence of a crime of any sorts at Comet Ping Pong.[61]

Sadly, many people who don’t know me or my neighborhood cling to an absurd lie: that I and political figures including Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her campaign chairman, John Podesta, run a child-slavery ring out of Comet’s basement.

Anti-Clinton conspiracy theorists and online trolls congregating on Reddit and 4chan decided that the words “pizza” and “cheese” in these emails were code for pedophilia.

They ultimately pushed the lie that my pizza restaurant was being used to abduct children and commit heinous crimes.

These lies ricocheted from shadowy chat rooms to various social-media platforms, encouraged by fake news articles and deliberately amplified by provocateurs such as Alex Jones, who broadcast these smears to his audience of millions.

After the main course it is customary to follow with dessert. In Pizzagate's case, this means the equally horrible Donutgate, with bizarre pedo ring theories centered on the quirky beloved Portland staple Voodoo Doughnut.[64][note 11]

As the Pizzagate conspiracy faded away, most of the energy in the movement got absorbed into the QAnon conspiracy theory. However, as of 2019, the ashes of Pizzagate continue to smolder on within, with some still engaged in the quest of busting up elite pedo sex rings they perceive to be running in Comet Ping Pong's basement. (Comet Ping Pong, incidentally, does not have a basement.)

On January 23, 2019, in what was possibly propelled by conspiracy theories (based on his parents earlier posting conspiracy videos pushed by "JoeM"[note 12]), Ryan Jaselskis attempted to set a black curtain at Comet Ping Pong on fire, bizarrely (but perhaps related to the conspiracy theory) leaving behind a diaper and baby food in the process. [67][68]